Category: News

An announcement from The Objectivist Center Founder David Kelley:
Next February will mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of Ayn Rand, the writer and thinker who gave us Objectivism, and the 15th anniversary of the Objectivist Center, which I created to promote that philosophy through independent thought and open debate?a promise we have carried through our seminars, conferences and publications, thanks to our dedicated staff and supporters.
In this anniversary year, we will take our organization to a new level of impact in the marketplace of ideas by making major changes in the Center?s location and management.
First, we will move our headquarters to Washington, D.C. Washington is the center of the think-tank world, where cultural as well as political issues are actively debated?and covered in the media. The Center is already well known?and well respected?within the network of pro-freedom organizations in the capital, which can help us leverage our efforts. With several major universities, Washington is an academic center as well. This move will also allow us to explore new fundraising sources.
Second, the current Washington director, Edward Hudgins, will assume the responsibilities of executive director. I will continue at the Center as ?chief intellectual officer? as well as a member of the board. With Ed as executive director, I will able to devote most of my time to my strengths ­ writing, research, and working with students and other scholars. Ed shares my commitment to Objectivism, and as a veteran of Capitol Hill, the Heritage Foundation, and the Cato Institute, he knows what it takes to succeed as an intellectual advocate. In the past two years he has shown tremendous energy and entrepreneurial vision in promoting our ideas through his writing, TV and radio appearances, and the conferences he?s organized.
With these changes, the Center will be better able to integrate its scholarly, academic and advocacy functions and focus on its strong comparative advantages in today?s intellectual battles.
One program focus will be the defense of capitalism as a moral ideal, not merely an economic one. Ed has received a good response using unique Objectivist arguments in defense of capitalism: the moral right of individuals to their own lives; entrepreneurs as creators who should take pride in their creations; the moral virtues manifested by entrepreneurs; and the need for them to stop apologizing for creating the richest country on Earth.
A second focus will be the culture wars over religion, values, and the clash of civilizations. We will continue to expose the false dichotomies between the religious values of cultural conservatives and the secular but socialistic values of the left. We will promote our distinctive cultural values?reason, individualism, and achievement?by applying to them to the issues of public debate.
We will continue the programs that have served our members well over the years, including publications and the Summer Seminar. We have also strengthened our student-training programs during the past year, and we?ll continue to make that investment in talent.
With our move and management changes we will be able to promote Objectivism more aggressively in the larger marketplace of ideas.

The Oct/Nov issue of Free Radical includes an interview with Nathaniel Branden that is sure to stimulate controversy.
The interview was conducted by Alec Mouhibian, and covers Branden’s thoughts about Ronald Reagan, gay marriage, the war in Iraq, the importance of writing books, why an imperfect ideological system (such as Christianity) can still be psychologically beneficial, the proper and improper use of moral judgment, the philosophical importance of procreation, and why the nature of sexual attraction is much more complicated than one would gather from reading Francisco’s speech in Atlas Shrugged.
The full interview is available on Nathaniel Branden’s web site.

Volume 6, Number 1 of The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies has just been published. This Fall 2004 issue is the first of two symposia celebrating the Ayn Rand Centenary (which is marked, officially, on 2 February 2005).
This issue is entitled “Ayn Rand: Literary and Cultural Impact,” and it features the articles and contributors listed below. The second Rand Centenary issue will be titled “Ayn Rand Among the Austrians,” and will include contributions from Walter Block, Peter J. Boettke, Steven Horwitz, Roderick T. Long, George Reisman, Larry J. Sechrest, Leland Yeager, Ed Younkins, and others. Information on that issue will be available in the Spring of 2005.
The Fall 2004 issue (Centenary Symposium, Part I – Ayn Rand: Literary and Cultural Impact) includes the following contributions:

The Illustrated Rand (by Chris Matthew Sciabarra)
Passing the Torch (by Erika Holzer)
Completing Rand’s Literary Theory (by Stephen Cox)
Ayn Rand’s Influence on American Popular Fiction (by Jeff Riggenbach)
Integrating Mind and Body (by Matthew Stoloff)
The Poetics of Admiration: Ayn Rand and the Art of Heroic Fiction (by Kirsti Minsaas)
The Russian Cultural Connection: Alexander Etkind on Ayn Rand (by Cathy Young)
The Russian Subtext of Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead (by Bernice Rosenthal)
Reply to Kirsti Minsaas: Toward an American Renaissance (by Alexandra York)

Visit the Journal of Ayn Rand Studies web site for article abstracts, contributor biographies, and information about subscribing.

The Objectivism Store has announced that the TOC LIVE! audiotapes from the 2004 Objectivist Center Summer Seminar are now available on their website. These tapes are the actual lectures from The Objectivist Center Summer Seminar without digital remastering, editing, noise reduction, etc..
For more information on ordering TOC LIVE tapes, visit The Objectivism Store.

The St. Petersburg Times quoted Edward Hudgins, the Washington Director for The Objectivist Center, defending price gouging during emergencies.
“Gouging gets a bad rap, economists argue” is mainly focused on the economic arguments against anti-gouging laws, reporting the views of many economists who argue that these laws lead to shortages and delays in recover. But it also includes several advocates of a moral defense of free-markets. Hudgins is quoted as asking “Why should one hurricane victim by prevented from paying more money for better or faster service, just because another hurricane victim can’t or won’t”?
Read the full article.